Storage cabinets such as those used in offices for storage of files and the like conventionally have an exterior housing which has a box-shape that is open on a front side. The housing has at least three side walls and a top wall wherein an open side is adapted to receive a plurality of drawers therein.
One conventional housing construction has a foldable sheet of wall material that defines a plurality and typically three of the vertical walls of the cabinet. More particularly, this foldable material sheet is commonly referred to as the housing wrapper wherein the left and right side walls as well as the back wall are formed together as a single piece, but each wall is separated one from the other by a fold line. The wrapper is folded into a box-like configuration to define the side walls and back wall wherein a separate top wall typically is mounted directly on the walls and then suitable drawers are fitted into the open front defined by the housing wrapper.
Since such housing wrapper is formed of sheet metal and therefore does not have significant lateral rigidity, additional internal frame pieces are mounted on the side walls to maintain the side walls and back wall in a rigid box-like shape. For example, each side wall may include a front vertical rail and a rear vertical rail which are affixed to the inside face of the side wall wherein additional horizontal cross rails extend between the upper ends of each pair of front vertical rails and the rear vertical rails while additional lower cross rails are mounted to the respective lower ends of the front and rear vertical rails. As such, near the front and rear ends of each side wall, the various rails are joined end-to-end into a rectangular configuration to increase the lateral and vertical strength of the overall cabinet structure formed by the wrapper. Additionally, the vertical side rails are adapted to support drawer slides thereon which drawer slides in turn support slidable drawers that are movable inwardly and outwardly from the open front side of the cabinet.
While such internal frame rails serve to rigidify the overall wrapper structure, the frame rails still are able to deflect, particularly at the upper and lower corners thereof, to permit undesirable lateral deflection, i.e. racking, of the cabinet. To determine the relative strength of a cabinet construction, it is known to measure the extent of force placed laterally on an upper corner of the cabinet, which force will cause lateral deflection or racking of one inch.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved cabinet construction which is stronger so as to provide better resistance to lateral deflection of the cabinet while also simplifying the arrangement of component parts and the assembly thereof.
The invention relates to a storage cabinet and in particular, a file cabinet having an external housing adapted to support a plurality of storage drawers therein. The cabinet of the invention in one embodiment uses a foldable housing wrapper which defines the side walls and back wall of the cabinet in a manner similar to prior art cabinets. In another embodiment, the side and back walls are separate pieces joined by screws. The inventive cabinet further includes a reinforcement box or insert which fits, preferably, into the back end portion of the hollow interior of the housing and in the case of the wrapper, after the wrapper is folded to define the side walls and back wall.
The reinforcement box generally has five sides defined by a vertical back panel which is disposed in opposing relation with the back wall of the cabinet housing. The back panel of the insert further includes four side panels which project forwardly of the back panel from the periphery thereof. Each of the side panels are rigidly joined together at their upper and lower corners to define a rigid open-sided box structure. The back panel has a rectangular shape and is integrally joined together with the side panels along the periphery thereof such that the back panel maintains the side panels in a rectangular configuration and resists deflection of the side panels, particularly at the corners.
An opposite pair of the box side panels extend vertically and are disposed in facing relation with the interior surfaces of the cabinet side walls. These vertical panels are rigidly affixed to the cabinet side walls, preferably by welding. The side panels of the reinforcement box therefore rigidify the overall cabinet structure in that the back panel reinforces the box side panels and greatly increases the overall resistance of the cabinet to lateral deflections.
Additionally, the reinforcement box has the back panel spaced forwardly of the back wall of the cabinet housing to thereby define a vertical channel therebetween. This spacing effectively results in a hollow column being formed by the cabinet back wall, the insert back panel and the rearmost edge portions of the cabinet side walls. The overall rigidity of the cabinet housing thereby is further increased.
Other objects and purposes of the invention, and variations thereof, will be apparent upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.